Modern Russian 1 and 2I am absolutely
thrilled to see a discussion thread of
"Modern Russian 1 and 2" by Clayton Dawson! My only hope is that this thread will not degenerate into -- yet another -- debate of the merits and the faults of the audio-lingual method of language instruction.
FSI Basic RussianThe FSI (Foreign Service Institute) was a co-sponsor of the project that ultimately led to the publication of the "Modern Russian 1 and 2" series of texts and accompanying audio recordings by Clayton Dawson et al. This major project was undertaken and completed at a time when there existed almost universal support of the audio-lingual method of language instruction amongst American academia. All of the sources that I have consulted on the Internet over the past ten years report that the FSI, rather than developing their own separate course, adopted the Dawson text for instruction of their students. For anyone who is familiar with the FSI Basic Spanish, FSI Basic French, FSI Basic German and other such courses, a review of the "Modern Russian 1 and 2" books could easily provoke an reaction of "déja vu" as to the methodology and the presentation of the materials.
Time to CompleteGiven that you have had the experience of studying Spanish with FSI Basic Spanish course, and that you actually had the stamina to persevere to the ultimate completion, in my view, you have already displayed the capacity and willingness to complete the "Modern Russian 1 and 2" course. Thus, a question as to the
time required to complete this course seems to be more a matter of one's ability to learn the Russian language. As you are probably aware, the FSI estimated that it would take approximately 1,100 hours of contact time with the these materials in a classroom with an instructor, six-to-eight carefully pre-screened students, six hours per day, five days a week, plus access to supplementary materials. As far as I understand, the three hours per day of after-class review and practice were not included in the FSI's aforementioned estimate.
I'll be frank here; I worked "on and off" with the "Modern Russian 1 and 2" course over a two-year period. My enthusiasm and motivation soared and plummeted. I love the audio-lingual approach, particularly at the Beginner-to-Intermediate level, after which even I would admit that one simply has to remove the training wheels and get into the traffic. I believe that my failure to complete the programme was due to my "being a visitor" to the Russian language, whereas my "unreserved passion" was permanently fixated on the German language. What does my experience tell me about your project? Well, I believe that you could "skim" the Modern Russian course, at rate of 90 minutes per day, in about a year; but this could easily be said of the Assimil Russian course or any other content-rich course.
Complete Set of Materials for Modern Russian 1 and 2 My understanding is that the complete set of course materials includes the following:
Modern Russian 1
Modern Russian 1 Workbook
Modern Russian 2
Modern Russian 2 Workbook
Modern Russian Instructor's Manual*
Audio Recordings***It is very important that you acquire a copy of the “Instructor’s Manual” because “Appendix A: Supplementary Pronunciation Drills” contains the texts accompanying the "sound drills" that are scattered throughout the student textbooks; the sound drills are keyed to specific Lesson Numbers in the textbooks. I find it quite odd that these very important drills were not included directly in the students’ textbooks!
**The audio recordings accompanying the “Modern Russian 1 and 2” course by Clayton Dawson are still available for purchase as CDs or cassettes via Amazon, et cetera. However, MP3 audio files are freely available via Indiana University's CeLt website. Here is the LINK:
http://www.iu.edu/~celtie/russian_b09.html Please note that the "File Description" contains a list of the audio files. For the most part, the audio files are complete. If I recall correctly, a very agreeable feature of this set of recordings is that someone has taken the time to segment them into smaller sections. Unfortunately, there has been a “double posting” of some of the audio files and, as a result, some of them are missing from the set. I cannot recall which ones are so effected; however, you will easily recognize which ones are missing and, if you send me a Private Message, I will dig through my collection and forward you the files.
HTLAL Discussion ThreadsUpdate/Edit: I conducted a quick "G-Search" of the HTLAL using "Modern Russian" as my search criterion. As I am sure you can appreciate, the search yielded a fair number of discussion threads, some of which made only a passing reference to the Dawson course, whereas others contained simple recommendations of this course as an introduction to the Russian language, most of which I have chosen to omit from the list below. Although many of the discussion threads that I included below do
not explain in any particular detail how the course is structured, the benefits of using it, et cetera, I suspect that most commentators were working from a "common knowledge base" that the audio-lingual method was adopted for this course and that there was "shared agreement" as to the effectiveness of this method; hence, no need to discuss the "obvious" merits of these materials. I have included a link that makes mention of the
"Princeton Russian course" as these materials, while conceived for classroom use, are freely available and represent an opportunity for additional practice. I have
not searched the HTLAL for references to the
"DLI Basic Russian course(s)" because I assume that you are aware of it/them and the opportunities that it/they represent. If there seems to be a preponderance of discussion threads wherein
I have made comments, please be aware that this is only a passing illusion...
"Modern Russian 1-2" by Dawson et alhttp://how-to-learn-any-language.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=40601&PN=3Modern Russian 1 & 2 by Clayton Dawsonhttp://how-to-learn-any-language.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=14982&PN=29Recommended Russian audio course?http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=39451&PN=8Russian Resources Requesthttp://how-to-learn-any-language.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=38841&PN=8Which of these Russian programs is betterhttp://how-to-learn-any-language.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=19683&PN=73Complementing Pimsleur Russian with what?http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=22745&PN=63Reorganized Princeton Russian Coursehttp://how-to-learn-any-language.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=25690EDITED:Inclusion of links to a selection of HTLAL discussion threads.
Addition of a Complete Set of Materials.
I have undoubtedly made a few typographical errors and, should I come across any, I will re-edit this post so as to correct them.
Otherwise, I think I'm done here!